So - was it just turned off? Or was it really not working?

 

It was just just turned off. Easy Peasy if you know how. Thanks again.

 

Most likely your recirculation button is set to control aAC as well - this is how AC got turned off in the first place. The three states of this button are (1)outside air (2) inside air (3) auto with AC on. You can go to the Climate screen and confirm whether it operates like this. AC needs to be off initially for it to work like this - otherwise AC will be on in all three states.

Whether the recirculation button works like this is a "dealer" setting - one needs TechStream or Carista to set it on or off. I have mine set like this - it is the closest thing we can get to a dedicated "AC on/ff" button. I still would like to see what was Toyota/Lexus logic was to remove the AC button in ES but keep it on other Lexuses.